(Aodhan Hubble)(Passagemaker build)

 5/24/22 Today I finished work on the interior of the hull, for the time being. I lightly sanded the seats that I coated yesterday, prepping them for their final coat. My plan was to finish the interior, flip the boat, and paint the hull by tomorrow. For the most part, I was able to adhere to this. The last thing I needed to do before I could turn the boat over was to taper the rubrails. The reason for this is to improve the look of the finished product, because making the rubrails taper as they reach the bow is more aesthetically pleasing. Using a straightedge, I measured 25 inches from the forward transom on the rubrail. I marked this on both sides, and then marked a straight line from the middle of the rubrial down to the outside edge at the 25 inch marks. Using a grinder, I tapered the wood along the line until I reached my desired result. I finished it with a random orbital sander, using another 120 grit disk. At this point I was ready to flip the boat, allowing me to access t...

 5/23/22 Today was another prep day, really trying to get everything together so I can finish. Unsurprisingly, it involved more sanding and epoxy work. To begin, I decided I would finish sanding the top side of the rubrails. I initially thought I was happy with them, but I decided  I would rather sand them further to eliminate some more of the epoxy that was coating the wood.  After this, I moved onto the seats. First, I "broke" the edges of the seats - meaning I took a 120 grit sanding disk and, using a block, worked along edges of the seats. This softens the sharp edges, which result from the cutting of the seats. The only purpose this serves is to make the finished product look and feel smoother.  I then got the vacuum and took care to remove as much dust as I could, in preparation for my fillets. Using the pastry bag method I often refer to, I laid small fillets along the edges of the seats. With the fillet tool I made, I smoothed the fillets out the best that I ...

5/23/22 This week was yet again taught me a surplus of lessons, one of which is that nothing is ever square. I worked on many different aspects of the boat, starting with the skids on the bottom and ending with the rubrails. I had to depart campus on Wednesday afternoon, but I was able to get back in the shop by Saturday morning. This cut my week short a little, and as I am writing this I am contemplating how much catch up work I actually need to accomplish.  Amongst the lessons I learned this week was one about patience, which came hand in hand with the installation of the landing skids. One of the tools that I needed to use was a chalk line, which is essentially a tape measure that has a chalk coated line inside. This complex device is used by carpenters to "snap a line", allowing them to get an accurate centerline of something.  For the installation of the skids on the bottom of the hull, I needed to be certain that they were exactly the same distance from the center of th...

 5/21/22 I returned to campus yesterday, and got right to work this morning. It was a somewhat light day in terms of work, but I was able to knock out some more of the important prep work. I began by removing all of the spring and C clamps that I used to affix the second set of rubrails. There were a handful that were stuck by epoxy squeeze out, but they were nothing that couldn't be taken care of with the heat gun.  There were also a number of clamps that I needed tighten a little more aggressively, due to the warp in the rail. With this in mind, I cut a small 1x1 squares of wood to place between the clamp where it met the hull. Having one of these squares on either side of the clamp allowed me to tighten the clamps without worrying about damaging the wood. Once all clamps were removed, I repeated the same process I discussed finishing the first set of rubrails. Using a heat gun and chisel, I scraped the majority of the squeeze out. This time, however, I also took care of the...

 5/17/22 Today I began by removing the clamps from yesterdays rubrail installation. Then, using heat gun and chisel, chiseled away the squeeze out that came from the join between the hull and rubrail sections. Using a heat gun warms the epoxy, loosening its bond which allows me to scrape it away without damaging the wood.  This saves me an incredible amount of time when compared to sanding away drips and squeeze-out. Once I had the big parts gone, I went back with a block and some 120 grit sandpaper disks, and began to sand away the parts I did not get with the chisel. Once I was happy with the finish, I proceeded to fitting the seats.  This step required some patience, as it required me to place, mark, and repeatedly remove the seats so I could get them to fit properly. I used a rasp and a handsaw during this step, being careful not to take too much material off.  Once I had the bow and stern seats sitting where I wanted them, I ran a pencil around the perimeter, le...

 5/16/22 Today, I kicked off the day by running fillets along the edges of the skids I installed last week. I used the remaining epoxy to fill the cracks that formed when I drove the wood screws in. I then sat and looked through the manual, familiarizing myself with the rubrail installation while the fillets set up.  Once it was firmed up enough, I used the rubbing alcohol trick to smooth out the fillets before getting some help and flipping the boat.  Because of the work that I did on the bottom of the hull, I needed to get a new saw horse that was designed to hold a boat with a skeg. This took the form of a section of ply with a V cut in the top, which was driven into the sawhorse with wood screws. At this point it was time to install the rub rails. This process required some amount of patience, as I needed to use around 30 C clamps to affix the rub rail to the sides of the boat.  By nature the rubrails were warped to some degree, dictating that a dry fit was in or...